[Reader-list] To save India, follow Jammu

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

  To save India, follow Jammu

A. Surya Prakash, The Pioneer, New Delhi
 For several days now, leaders of the Kashmiri separatist movement like
Sajjad Lone have been repeatedly declaring that they will not give "even an
inch of land" to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board to provide facilities to
Hindu pilgrims going to the holy cave in Kashmir. Alongside the uncouth
behaviour and verbal threats of these so-called leaders of separatist
outfits during television studio discussions, millions of Indians have also
got to see demonstrators flaunting the Pakistan flag and raising
pro-Pakistan slogans.

 Many Indians who, thanks to the media boom, are exposed to this bigoted,
intimidatory posture of Kashmiri separatists for the first time, are
shocked. Till now they never knew that despite six decades of engagement
with the world's largest and most vibrant democracy, people in the Kashmir
Valley could be so far-removed from the liberal, democratic and secular
framework within which the rest of India operates.

 Young Indians are also getting acquainted for the first time with the
glaring distinction between the nationalist, plural Jammu region and the
secessionist, communal Kashmir Valley. While protesters in Jammu -- Hindu,
Sikh and Muslim -- march with the Indian tricolour in hand and raise slogans
like 'Bharat Mata ki jai', the protesters in Srinagar wave green flags of
the Hurriyat or the flag of Pakistan, and the slogan that rents the air is
'Allah-o-Akbar'.

 It is indeed unfortunate that even 60 years after the accession of the
State of Jammu & Kashmir to India, the Kashmir Valley appears to be outside
the pale of our secular democracy. It seems to be in the very same mood in
which it was 600 years ago when Sultan Sikander began the onslaught on
Hinduism and forced Hindus to convert to Islam or migrate. The second big
assault on the Hindu minority occurred in 1989-90 when Islamic militants,
aided by locals, subjected Hindus to murder, arson and loot. This pogrom led
to the forced migration of over three lakh Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley
to live as refugees in Jammu and Delhi.

 In recent years, militants have been targeting Amarnath *yatri*s and
killing these pilgrims at temporary camps set up along the route. Yet,
despite all this, Sajad Lone says that Muslims have been "taking care" of
the *yatri*s all these years and that there is really no need for a Sri
Amarnath Shrine Board. Even more laughable is the statement of Mirwaiz Umer
Farooq, chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, who has claimed that they
"believe in secularism" and that the communalists are the Hindus who are
agitating for land for the Shrine Board!

 Strangely no Kashmiri separatist leader is even ashamed of the ethnic
cleansing of Hindus, which is the biggest assault on a religious minority
community in this part of the world. In recent times many Kashmiri
separatist leaders have appeared on television shows. All of them appear
defiant, bigoted, communal and anti-Indian, and yet hog a lot of airtime.

 It is as if Kashmiri Muslims are exempt from any requirement of decency and
civility in discourse. This over-indulgence with persons with an illiberal
and anti-Indian outlook has encouraged persons like Mirwaiz Umer Farooq,
Sajjad Lone and Billal Lone to sharpen their knives and become far more
brazen and vicious in their attacks on the Indian state.

 The plight of the Hindu minority in India's only Muslim-majority State and
the pro-Pakistan slogans being raised in the Valley has its implications not
just for India's unity and integrity but also for India's secular
foundations and concepts of federalism. Should voices like that of Arundhati
Roy, who feels the demand for '*azadi*' in the Kashmir Valley must be
listened to with empathy, get louder, it will amount to belated ratification
of Mohammed Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory. In which case, we must widen the
scope for self-determination and extend this idea to every State.

 This discomfort with a secular, democratic society among sections of the
people in the Valley is nothing new. Lone's forebears had displayed similar
inclination for things that lie across the border. The naked face of
Kashmiri Muslim communalism bared its fangs in the last century for the
first time in 1947 when Muslim soldiers in the Kashmir Army deserted their
officers and joined the invading Pakistani Army. The betrayal of Hindu
officers by Muslim soldiers in the Kashmir Army is chronicled by VP Menon,
who was Secretary in the States Ministry at the time of independence, in his
book *The Story of the Integration of the Indian States*.

 Pakistan first sent in infiltrators and then launched an all-out invasion
of Jammu & Kashmir on October 22, 1947. The main raiders' column had 5,000
men who were led by regular soldiers of the Pakistani Army. When the
invaders arrived at the gates of Muzaffarabad, the Kashmir State battalion,
consisting of Muslims and Dogras, was commanded by Lt Col Narain Singh. All
the Muslims deserted the battalion, "shot the commanding officer and his
adjutant; joined the raiders, and acted as advance-guard to the raiders'
column... All the Muslims in the State Forces had deserted and many had
joined the raiders".

 The raiders then marched towards Uri. Brig Rajinder Singh, the Chief of
Staff of the State Forces, managed to gather 150 men and met the invaders at
Uri. Brig Singh engaged the enemy in a fierce battle for two days and in a
rearguard action destroyed the Uri bridge. "The brigadier himself and all
his men were cut to pieces in this action." The dare devilry of these
valiant soldiers delayed the onward thrust of the invading Army.

 Thus, although the Pakistanis were at the doorsteps of Srinagar, there was
just enough time for the Government to airlift troops to Srinagar and secure
the State capital. Paying a tribute to the courage of Brig Singh, Menon says
it was only appropriate that the first Maha Vir Chakra was awarded to this
great soldier, albeit posthumously.

 These facts of history tell their own story. The betrayal of Brig Rajinder
Singh and Lt Col Narain Singh by Muslim soldiers in 1947 has its echo in the
events in Jammu & Kashmir today. The past has cast its long shadow on the
present. Obviously, there are leaders in the Valley who continue to long for
Pakistan and who have no compunctions in trampling upon the rights of the
Hindu minority in the State.

 Every Indian who cares for India's unity and integrity and our liberal,
secular and democratic way of life, must be ready to make the kind of
sacrifices that Brig Singh and Lt Col Singh made over 60 years ago if we
wish to retain Jammu & Kashmir as an integral part of India. Gutsy citizens
of Jammu are showing us the way. We must salute and emulate them.